Browsing: Unsolved

On Tuesday, July 29, 2008, a well-respected scientist named Bruce Ivins died in Maryland, an apparent suicide. Doctors say Ivins may have ingested an overdose of Tylenol mixed with codeine. If the Federal Bureau of Investigation is right about Bruce E. Ivins, he may have had good reason to go.
In June, 2008, the United States Government paid a scientist named Steven Hatfill nearly six million dollars. For 6 years or so Hatfill had been the FBI’s main suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
The attacks started shortly after September 11, 2001. Letters containing a finely milled, powder form of the toxin were mailed to NBC, the New York Post, and the National Enquirer. When all was said and done, five people were dead and the public was terrified. The anthrax scare served to ratchet up the national level of paranoia over terrorism to a true fever pitch. It briefly crippled even the venerable U.S. Postal Service.
Steven Hatfill’s payday came about because by 2006 the FBI had begun to move away from him as a suspect in the case. They simply couldn’t connect the man to the weaponized anthrax. Nothing would stick.
By the time Hatfill received his money and an exoneration on June 27, 2008, the feds had another suspect in the crosshairs. The Los Angeles Times reported early Friday that soon after it was clear that Steven Hatfill was safe to take his money and sink back into blissful anonymity, 62-year-old U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) scientist Bruce Ivins began to sweat.

Casey Marie Anthony, age 22, says she dropped her 2-year-old daughter Caylee off with a mysterious babysitter named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez on June 9. Casey then lost track of the child. Both Caylee and “Zenaida” vanished, without a trace.
On June 20, John Azzilano was taking photos at Fusion, an Orlando nightclub. Caylee Anthony had been missing for 11 days at that point, but her mother was captured by Azzilano’s lens that night. She could be seen smiling with friends and acquaintances, some of them throwing fake gang signs. She looked like any other pretty twenty-something out on the town, without a care in the world.
Two weeks later, a MySpace friend of Casey’s left this comment on Casey’s “kayseeomaree” profile. Casey’s friend Yelena seemed to be responding to a suggestion from Casey. She wrote, yeah we should def get together!!! Lets go to the beach this sunday??!!!” The following day, a young guy named Frank left a comment, and he also appeared to be responding to some communication from Casey, “that sounds like it could be fun :)” [TCR]
About a week after Frank told Casey that whatever she’d suggested “could be fun,” Casey’s mother, Cindy Anthony, called 911. Casey Anthony’s party was over.

* Casey Anthony, at the Bottom and Digging — (Orlando, FL) Casey Marie Anthony‘s story is that her little girl Caylee vanished on June 9, after Casey left her with a babysitter named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez. Casey then tried to find her daughter, even going to clubs she thought Zenaida might frequent. I guess that’s how Casey ended up in a series of good-time party-girl photos made on June 20, smiling as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Wonder what her mom Cindy (who has been great with coming up with excuses for Casey since prompting her daughter’s arrest) will say to explain those? And did Casey Anthony break into a shed in her parents’ yard to steal gas cans some time early in July? Her parents reported a burglary around that time. Whatever happened, it looks like no one should expect the truth from Casey any time soon. [Fox News]
* Illinois Gothic: Mother Allegedly Kills Newborn, Burns Home (Champaign, IL) Illinois authorities say Cayla Wheeler, age 23, gave birth to a baby on July 2. They believe she drowned the child and hid the remains in a hole in the woods near her home. Wheeler wasn’t done with mayhem, though. One week later Wheeler allegedly burned her and her husband’s home to the ground. Wheeler’s recent pregnancy came to light during the investigation into the house fire. Cayla Wheeler has been charged with arson, concealing a homicide, and murder in the first degree. [AP/MSNBC]
* Former NBA Ref Sentenced to 15 Months — (Brooklyn, NY) NBA referee Tim Donaghy took part in a betting scandal that sent shockwaves through the NBA. On Tuesday Donaghy learned his fate: 15 months in a federal pen. Donaghy gave a brief statement in federal court. He said, in part, “I brought shame upon myself, my family and the profession.” Donaghy could have been sentenced to nearly 3 years in prison, but he earned the less lengthy term by cooperating with authorities during the investigation. [NYDN]
* Blue-Clad Men Rob Armored Truck in West Palm — (West Palm Beach, FL) A robber shot a Loomis armored truck guard outside a Wachovia Bank branch about 10 a.m. this morning in suburban West Palm. It sounded like a pretty organized robbery. A group of robbers with handguns and an assault rifle arrived as the Loomis guard was re-stocking an ATM. Shots were exchanged and the guard was hit in the leg. He was in good enough shape to take himself to the hospital. Police say they have one suspect in custody, but they’re looking for at least four others. Witnesses report that the robbers all wore blue and they left in a blue van. [WPTV]
* Boyfriend of Woman Stuck to Toilet Gets Probation — (Wichita, KS) It was one of the weirder stories in recent memory: a woman discovered on the toilet in her boyfriend’s bathroom, where she’d been stuck on the john for a month. Her muscles had atrophied and her skin basically glued to the seat. Her boyfriend, Kory McFarren, was arrested and charged with mistreating a dependent adult. McFarren was sentenced yesterday to one year of probation and a mental evaluation for his part in the whole thing. [KAKE]
* THIS DAY IN TRUE CRIME HISTORY: Jimmy Hoffa — (Oakland County, MI) On July 30, 1975, labor leader (and pardoned ex-con) Jimmy Hoffa vanished from the parking lot of the Machus Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Twp, MI. Hoffa’s disappearance and presumed murder — still unsolved, to this day — soon became part of American pop culture. Jimmy Hoffa has been joked about during late night talk show monologues, been the central figure in pop songs and the subject of numerous books and movies. [TruTV]

The motion Casey Marie Anthony’s attorney filed Monday to keep the Orange County Jail from releasing audio and video recordings of Anthony’s jailhouse activities to the press has been denied.
Anthony’s attorney, Jose Baez, insisted that tapes of Anthony’s phone conversations could “impeded the investigation.”
The response from Judge Stan Strickland? “If your motion is granted, then the public’s only source of information will be from you [Baez] and the defendant’s family.”
As previous posts in this blog may show, Baez and the Anthony family are not proving to be the most reliable sources of information in this case.
[MyFoxOrlando.com]

Cindy Anthony’s 911 calls made on July 15 just keep coming back to haunt her. A third conversation was released today.
It reveals Anthony as anything but her daughter’s defender. On July 15, she was worried sick about her granddaughter, 2-year-old Caylee, and contemplating taking the child away from Casey Anthony if Caylee was found.
The most tell-tale portion of the newly-published transcript (which you can read in full by clicking the link at the bottom of this post) was a conversation recorded between Cindy and Casey, when they thought the 911 operator was switching them over to another operator.
Speaking to Casey, Cindy Anthony said, “My next thing will be to file a child thing and we will get her […] If that is the way you want to play, we’ll do it.”
Casey Anthony responded, “That’s not the way I want to play.”
Cindy said, “Well then you have…” and Casey cut her off, saying she wanted “one more day.”
Cindy Anthony said something then that seemed to express just how bizarrely patient she’d been with her daughter, “No,” she said, “I’m not giving you another day, I’ve given you a month.”

Missing Orlando, Florida toddler Caylee Anthony’s grandmother refuted claims made in court that detectives could smell decomposition in a vehicle used and later abandoned by Caylee’s mom, Cindy’s currently-incarcerated daughter, 22-year-old Casey Marie Anthony. Here is what she said to Fox News: “Do me a favor […] Put a little piece of pizza or any piece of garbage in your car today and leave it shut up for 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 days in this heat and then come back to me in 19 days and tell me what it smells like.”
Cindy Anthony’s increasingly desperate-seeming statements on her daughter’s behalf smack more of a woman who has lost a grandchild and now finds herself valiantly trying to hang on to her daughter, who may eventually be charged with that grandchild’s murder.
Because in 911 calls made July 15, when Cindy first contacted police about Caylee’s disappearance, she didn’t seem so self-assured about issues like the nasty odor coming from her car.

UPDATE
The police in Orlando seem to doubt there’s anything to the story of the slab being poured on the 4th of July. It may be as solid as the supposed sightings of Caylee in Georgia.Original Post
Missing 2-year-old Caylee Anthony’s family may have poured a new concrete slab in their backyard over the July 4th weekend. That’s the word from a tipster in Orlando, where the little girl was last seen alive around June 9, this year. The Anthony family — her mother Casey, 22, who is currently in jail on charges related to Caylee’s disappearance — and Caylee’s grandparents, have not confirmed or denied the tip.
On July 4, Caylee had been missing for nearly a month. Eleven days after the holiday, Casey Anthony finally went to police with her bizarre and unbelievable story of leaving her toddler with a babysitter and then just never seeing her again. Though Casey’s mother may have prompted the young woman’s meeting with the authorities, Cindy Anthony has since been her daughter’s staunch defender, insisting there’s no way Casey killed Caylee. Cindy has promoted tips from the public stating that her granddaughter has been seen on planes going from Orlando to Florida, and made statements to the effect that her daughter is trying to tell the police what happened, the problem with the cops is they just want the story to be clear.

Casey Marie Anthony’s lawyer, Jose Baez, says there’s been a ‘credible’ sighting of missing 2-year-old Caylee Anthony. Caylee’s grandmother confirmed the tip. According to Cindy Anthony the tip came in a voicemail from an Orlando woman. Anthony says she returned the woman’s call.
The tipster said she was on a flight from Orlando to Atlanta when she saw Caylee. The child appeared to be accompanied by an older woman. The tipster spoke to both the toddler and the older woman, and the little one actually gave her name, pronouncing her last name just as Caylee supposedly does, leaving out the “h” — ‘Antony.’
The tipster’s neat little story continued: the little girl gave her age as 3. Caylee Anthony is nearly 3 years old.
So — a missing child is with a mysterious older woman on a flight out of Orlando. Her companion allows her to talk to a stranger, and apparently sits idly by as the little girl gives her correct name and age. Oh, and the little girl doesn’t pronounce her “th” properly. Right. Lord knows there isn’t another 2-year-old on earth who mispronounces her name.
Yesterday, a sadly realistic assessment of what may have happened to Caylee came out in a bail hearing for Casey Anthony.

That kooky ex-cop Drew Peterson, he of the missing and mysteriously dead wives, can’t seem to stop running his mouth. According to a report published today in the Chicago Sun-Times, a couple of Peterson’s friends wore wires over the course of the last 7 months, and they caught him talking out of school quite a bit.
Because you know, that’s what cocky, psychopathic sons-a-bitches do when they think they’ll never get caught. More after the jump.

So here’s what Casey Marie Anthony told the cops in Orange County, Florida about her missing daughter Caylee, age 2. She said that on June 9th, she left her toddler with a friend named Zenaida Gonzalez, who lived at The Sawgrass Apartments in Orlando.
According to a media advisory released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Dept. on July 16, Casey Anthony then “lost contact” with her babysitter. She also lost contact with her daughter…